Posts

Education And Vocation

Florence  Church send me a link to her blog  that boasts of 10 colleges offering special programs for people on the ASD spectrum. This is wonderful news. These colleges offer programs which include support groups, special classes and assistance. Only the costs seem  a little prohibitive even by American standards. But then that is the cost of your degree. This is the link to her blog.  10 Impressive Special Colleges                                                  Here is another website that I came across Jobs For Autism  .There is so much happening that it feels good. Recently at the Global Autism Convention, Mr, Thorkil Sonne, Founder, Specialsterne and specialist people foundation, Denmark, spoke of his efforts where he has em...

Global Autism Convention

The global autism convention is being held in Bangalore on the 19th, 20th and 21st of this month at NIMHANS convention centre. Various institutions from Bangalore are collaborating to make this event happen.  ASHA (academy for severe Handicaps and autism) , Autism society of India, IRC, KPAMRC, Spastics Society of Karnataka, St. John’s Hospital, Parivar National federation of Parents’ organization. The Key note address is being given by Ms. Merry Barua. Speakers both from India and abroad will be addressing the gathering. Besides workshops are also being organized on various topics on information and computer technology, play therapy to mention a few.                    For more information, one can visit their website. http://www.autismconventionblr2011.com/. The registrations are on. More importantly they have organized for respite care for the three days at the venue @Rs.200 a day. For par...

Divine Interlude

This was a sequel to my camping out with Rama. But this time we packed in more punch with the whole family joining in. Father, mother, son and daughter. Organized by Akhila and Ram from Coimbatore in tie up with NALS an Adventure company, we had a lovely, memorable holiday. We were a group of six families. The comfort level was so high, the company great, the food excellent, the weather to die for, the experience sheer joy.                              We were put up in dorms with three tier beds and the kids freaked out. Isha had company with siblings who had also brothers with similar problem. And I even found her exchanging notes with them!!!!!!!! My brother kisses me, he can read ….                            We did ...

Camping With Ramam

The last weekend I and Ramam set out on a camping trip. I would not have thought of such a possibility as this few months back. But it was made possible by Sarbani   mallick and her team at Bubbles. As everything was taken care of, logistics, food, accommodation all that was needed to be done was to pack my bags and leave.                                                       But, yes there were way too many apprehensions in my mind in the beginning. Will I be able to manage him alone? What about his food? I think food is always such a major issue with parents. Loaded my bag with every conceivable gfcf snack. It was some solace there were couple of other parents with children on the diet.       ...

Building language skills

It has been quite some time since I have blogged. Somebody recently asked me how often do you blog? I said probably 2-3 posts a month. But then I realized I have posted just one this month, I better buck up. My GFCF recipes have also dried up!! Am going thru a lean phase with nothing much I can think of adding. But just this. I recently attended a workshop by Dr. Yamini and Dr. Shiv Shankar from NIMHANS on language building and communication for our children, Sorry, I haven’t got the title right but what mattered was the content of the workshop.   I was looking forward to Dr. Yamini’s talk as I have interacted with her on earlier occasions but Dr. Shiv Shankar was also equally good.   The first point he made was not to confuse language with speech therapy. What we want for our children is language therapy and not speech therapy. One spends time commuting to therapists, money on therapies all to no avail because language therapy is something one must to do 365 days 24*7.The th...

New Law

I would request all readers reading this blog especially from Bangalore to give this post its due importance. For people who are totally unaware of the new disability act coming into act shortly, I would like to provide some background information. A new law is being worked on for people in the disability sector as a replacement of the 1995 PWD (persons with disabilities) act. A working draft committee with a handful of very committed members (as I say handful, in terms of comparison to the number of people affected) is looking into it. This is an issue close to all our hearts especially the parents.   Read on. This is an abridged version of a mail that has been circulated among the members for a better understanding of the law and its shortcomings. The issues are ·          The man date of the committee, and specifically the one law multiple law issue ·          Inclusive education versus appropriate ...

My experience with the census

After attending the meeting organized by ALFAA, I was for once, looking forward to    meeting a government official, somebody from the census board.   I was also pumped up after watching the commercials being aired on TV to include disabled persons, no matter what the disability in the census. Autism as of now is not mentioned in the census which is very sad, given the fact it is increasing at an alarming pace. It is it is clubbed with “others” in the disability category.                                          Unfortunately for me, the official turned up at my doorstep at an inopportune time. Ramam was in a foul mood, and I requested him to come after 10 minutes. I requested him to complete the formalities for the other apartments on my floor. He then told me initially it ...